AMHERST, Mass. From a documentary exploring Woody Guthrie’s deep connections to Jewish culture to a community open house celebrating Sholem Aleichem and Fiddler on the Roof, the Yiddish Book Center’s fall season offers opportunities to engage with Yiddish culture in person and online.

The season begins Sunday, Sept. 6, at 2 p.m., with a screening at the Yiddish Book Center of “Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie.” Directed and produced by filmmaker Steven Pressman, the documentary explores Guthrie’s relationship with New York’s Jewish community and the influence Jewish culture had on his life and music. Pressman will join the audience for a live Q and A following the screening. The 89-minute documentary is cosponsored by the Springfield JCC.

In October, the Center turns to memoir with “Memoir Writing Then and Now: Reading and Writing with Rokhl Feygenberg’s The Winding Road,” a four-session online course taught by journalist, teacher, and playwright Rokhl Kafrissen, winner of the 2022 Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Prize.

Held Tuesdays, Oct, 6, 13, 20, and 27, from 7–8:30 p.m. ET, the course invites participants to explore their own memories and experiences through Feygenberg’s memoir of growing up in a Belarusian shtetl. Newly translated into English by Tamara Helfer, The Winding Road was written by Feygenberg while she was still a teenager. Each week, participants will read a section of the book, explore its themes, and use them as prompts for their own memoir writing.

“Through the act of both reading and writing, we will discover not just the extraordinary life of Rokhl Feygenberg, but how much we share in common,” said Mindl Cohn, academic director for the Yiddish Book Center.

The course is open to writers and readers of all levels. No knowledge of Yiddish is required. All sessions are held live via Zoom, with recordings available to registrants.

On Sunday, Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Yiddish Book Center will host a community open house celebrating Sholem Aleichem, and the enduring legacy of his stories of Tevye the Dairyman, which inspired Fiddler on the Roof. The free day includes a family scavenger hunt, Yiddish printing press demonstrations, public tours of Yiddish: A Global Culture, and other activities throughout the Center. At 2 p.m., the Valley Light Opera will offer an exclusive sneak peek of songs and scenes from its upcoming production of Fiddler on the Roof, followed by a talkback with Amherst College scholar Ilan Stavans on the meaning and continuing resonance of Fiddler today.

The fall season also includes opportunities to learn Yiddish through the Center’s In eynem Yiddish language courses, which meet twice weekly online for 24 sessions. Designed for students at various levels of Yiddish study, the courses combine live instruction with independent practice and homework, giving students the opportunity to build their language skills and connect with others through Yiddish.

The Center’s fall online programs offer more ways to explore Yiddish and Jewish culture from home, including a look at art, entertainment, and fashion in 1930s Warsaw on Sept. 17; a conversation about a Yiddish book that remained hidden for 75 years on Oct.1; and a presentation on the life and photography of Moï Ver (Moshe Vorobeichic) on Oct. 8. The full schedule includes programs with authors, scholars, and artists, throughout the fall. A schedule of upcoming courses, programs, and events, may be obtained on the website, yiddishbookcenter.org.